i am also in the market for an A8, but was wondering, how is the resale of this ride? i mean i checked out a few '99 4.2's with maybe 8K miles max, and the price already dropped to mid $40K's? i was wondering whats up with that? maybe i should get a demo model, instead of forking of the cash? what do you guys think...?

While I doubt that Audi will have the same $6000-6500 dealer incentives they had on the last few months of the '99 model, there is bound to be a significant incentive to move out the last of the '00 A8 models. I don't think the '00 A8 is selling that much better than the '99. I've only seen 2 or 3 '00 A8 models in the greater Los Angeles area so far.

I believe one of the fellow AudiWorld A8 owners (Manny perhaps) bought a new '99 A8 with an MSRP of $68-69K for $53K by taking advantage of the huge dealer incentives and the big diference between invoice and MSRP numbers. If you buy a new one for mid-50's you have got yourself a heck of a deal. Even so, big luxury cars do depreciate significantly the first couple of years.

All luxury cars lose their value (except for MB). The Mercs are kept artificially high by the manufacturer that keeps the supply really low. I know of people who wait 12-18 months for certain Mercedes models.

I don't think the A8 loses its value any more than others in its class (check out Edmunds.com). If you want to see depreciation, check out Jaguar and Cadillac. It is all supply and demand. The A8s are starting to get more popular, and that should start to raise the resale since the supply is low (around 2K cars per year).

And yes, I did pick up a new '99 A8 last August for $53K (the year-end deals can't be beat).